Back in autumn 2016 we collaborated with NG Bristow and Ian Thompson to create a monthly Sound Salon inviting anyone interested in composing sound walks and outdoor sound pieces: one month we met at the Mitre in Greenwich, the second month we tried to do some field recording, and the third month we would join Grant Waters, Soundscapes Lead for Anderson Acoustics in their 8 x 1 Sonic Room to listen to each other’s works.
An objective for the salon evolved, as we devised Sound Walk Sunday in 2017, which actually fell on the last Sunday in August 2017. Through the Walking Artist Network, we learnt about Walking Art Encounters devised and organised by Geert Vermeire of Made Of Walking and with his plan for an event in La Romieu in south-west France, which would bring walking artists and sound artists together, we celebrated Sound walks Sunday both on the ground in France and online.
We took a breather in 2018 returning in 2019, with a bigger and more comprehensive event that ran over the whole of September, prompted in part by the encouragement of Stella Wisdom at the British Library’s Digital Research archives, who earlier in the year had hosted an event on our behalf called Exploring with Sound Walks.
Once again we had a smattering of events on the ground, this time in different parts of the world, as well as many more online.
Web and app developer, Babak Fakhamzadeh joined Geert and ourselves, creating a stand-alone walk · listen · create website to host Sound Walk September and to help us grow the community of sound walk enthusiasts worldwide. The pandemic affected all our efforts in 2020 and 2021, however, it provided us a huge growth in our network globally, and with an enlarged team and a terrific digital presence we were able to incorporate more online events, not just in September, but throughout the year.
So here we are on Thursday, the 1st of September 2022, celebrating our fifth edition. We are hosting several online cafés, a panel discussion or two, and a showcase of walking writing, in addition, we have from our growing members, many new online events, as well as some on the ground – listen to the sound walking pieces submitted so far and the programme of events here
It’s our third year of running the Sound Walk September Awards, the closing date for which is the 30th September, so there is still time for you to submit new work.
We are excited by the events that are being offered, and really appreciate the work and creativity that has brought them to our attention – see you during the month.